Shout (Black gospel music)

The shout music tradition originated within the church music of the Black Church, parts of which derive from the ring shout tradition of slaves from West Africa. As these slaves, who were concentrated in the southeastern United States, incorporated West African shout traditions into their newfound Christianity, the Black Christian shout tradition emerged—albeit it not in all Black churches or in every part of the country. In the North prior to the 1930s, many African-American Christians practiced a form of worship found denominations such as Episcopal Churches and Methodist Churches, more similar to their White Christian neighbors.[1]

Even so, after the dawn of the Azusa Street Revival and the rise of Pentecostalism in 1906, many African-American Christians began to incorporate more modern Charismatic Christian practices into their worship, including speaking in tongues and various other bodily anomalies said to be caused by the Holy Spirit. The shout tradition fit well into this framework and became ever more popular across the spectrum of Pentecostalism and, eventually, the larger Charismatic Evangelical world.

As Southern Black Christians migrated north in large numbers and began to found churches of their own, since they has different styles of worship than Northern Black churches, the center of power shifted in their direction. At the same time, a new form of Black gospel music emerged, influenced both by the Black spiritual tradition as well as the growing Pentecostal/Holiness movements. This led to the high-energy, fast-paced shouts and praise breaks with contemporary descendants.

It is common for gospel recording artists to include shouts and praise breaks on their albums, either recorded in a studio or live during a recorded show. This has had an outsize influence on the spread (and musical structure) of the tradition in modern times.

There are many variations of this particular style of music. In its most standard form, shout music is characterized by very fast tempo, chromatic basslines and piano/organ chords, snare hits and hand claps on the upbeat of each beat. The organist typically plays dominant 7 chords while improvising over riffs, while the pianist typically plays counter rhythms to the established rhythmic structure.

Often bands will break into shout music at the end of a song or as a finale, or at a particularly high emotional point during a church service or sermon—often cued by the singer or speaker themselves. Shouts following a sermon often come at the end of an instance of "whooping".

The structure of African-American Church bands varies greatly, but all typically have a few basic instruments in common: a basic drum kit, bass guitar, and an organ and/or piano.

Shouts typically lack sheet music and can vary from less than one minute to as long as over an hour and may span many different songs. Usually there is an instrumentalist guiding the structure and flow musically, though standard shout music is often used as a bed for vocal riffing and calling out of exclamatory catch phrases or "shouts" (e.g. "Hallelujah!" or "Thank you, Lord!") by a singer or minister during the experience.

• Music of the United States
• Christian Music
• Charismatic Christianity

• Shout Music on organ with bass and drums
• Chris Edwards playing Shout Music on organ with a full band and choir